Rural Tourism Development: Land Use, Ecosystem Services, and Community Interactions

A special issue of Land (ISSN 2073-445X). This special issue belongs to the section "Land Socio-Economic and Political Issues".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 6 February 2025 | Viewed by 2333

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
Department of Geography, Faculty of Chemistry, Biology, Geography, West University of Timisoara, Timișoara, Romania
Interests: human geography; cultural tourism; urban geography; regional geography

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Geography, Faculty of Chemistry, Biology, Geography, West University of Timisoara, Timișoara, Romania
Interests: human geography; rural geography; territorial systems

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

We are pleased to invite you to submit your work to this Special Issue on “Rural Tourism Development: Land Use, Ecosystem Services, and Community Interactions”. Since research on issues surrounding rural tourism that are connected to ecosystem services and community interactions remains largely overlooked, submissions to this Special Issue should cover the intersection of all aspects of the sustainable development of rural areas through tourism, land use, and community interactions. Rural tourism represents a niche field promoting local sustainability and sustainable economic and cultural development in local areas, aiming to ensure cultural capitalization and heritage preservation in line with the care of all environmental features of places and regions. This Special Issue seeks to empower impactful research by revealing the potential of rural tourism to adopt land use ecosystem services and community interactions that facilitate a transition to sustainable rural environmental systems. Placed within a rapidly growing body of literature that is dedicated to the exploration of how rural tourism develops, land use ecosystems services, cultural community interactions, and cutting-edge research on rural tourism and the cultural development of places, this Special Issue contributes to the discourse by describing how rural tourism can be successfully integrated with local policies in rural development to address contemporary challenges in sustainable rural development. Moreover, in this Special Issue, the spotlight will be on exploring applications of rural tourism through the lens of circular community interaction principles. We are particularly interested in manuscripts that comprehensively examine how rural tourism development is designed through the lens of land use ecosystems services and community interaction, and how it can transform rural areas into developing places and regions, ensuring sustainable development. Submissions that solve original scientific problems in the field of rural tourism, covering aspects closely related to land use, ecosystem services, and community interactions, are in the form of original research articles, opinions, and reviews.

This Special Issue welcomes both original research articles and review papers that link the following themes:

  • Advances in rural land use changes and landscapes based on the rural and cultural tourism potential of rural habitats;
  • Economic spatial changes in rural areas based on the recent industrial changes;
  • The emergence of service-led activities in rural areas as a consequence of rural–urban spatial interactions;
  • Rural and cultural tourism studies, ecotourism, and cultural community interactions;
  • The capitalization of the cultural heritage of rural areas through the lens of contemporary trends in local and regional economic development;
  • Sustainable rural development through tourism, land use change, and community interactions.

We look forward to receiving your submissions.

Dr. Ioan Sebastian Jucu
Dr. Cătălina ANCUȚA
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

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Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Land is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

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Keywords

  • rural land use change
  • rural tourism development
  • rural tourism and socio-economic interaction
  • rural cultural heritage
  • cultural tourism in rural areas

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Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

19 pages, 2621 KiB  
Article
The Importance of Automatic Counters for Sustainable Management in Rural Areas: The Case of Hiking Trails in Historic Villages of Portugal
by Ana Luque and Luiz Alves
Land 2025, 14(1), 61; https://doi.org/10.3390/land14010061 - 31 Dec 2024
Viewed by 601
Abstract
The dynamics of territorial planning, the management of its tourism products, and the monitoring of demand flows and their impact on the territorial structure (social, economic and environmental) require tools that support the acquisition of reliable quantitative data, as far as possible in [...] Read more.
The dynamics of territorial planning, the management of its tourism products, and the monitoring of demand flows and their impact on the territorial structure (social, economic and environmental) require tools that support the acquisition of reliable quantitative data, as far as possible in real time, that are easy to manage and allow immediate analysis. In the case of structures and equipment anchored in the nature tourism segment, in particular hiking trails, in addition to determining the demand indices in a network of hiking trails and understanding their territorial and temporal dynamics, the data collected through automatic counters is a crucial tool to support territorial management and evaluate the patterns and flows of tourist demand. Based on these assumptions, this research seeks to analyse demand data observed on eleven hiking trails in the Historic Villages of Portugal, collected through automatic monitoring systems (counters). In four years, between 2020 and 2023, the trails analysed generated a demand of almost 190,000 passages, which translates into an annual average of 47,500 passages in the tourism product “Historic Villages of Portugal” (more than 4800 passages for each trail), mostly in the spring and autumn months, mainly on weekends. Full article
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21 pages, 8342 KiB  
Article
Research on the Influencing Factors of Art Intervention in the Environmental Graphics of Rural Cultural Tourism Space
by Jingchun Zhang, Xiaodong Liu, Zhiyu Feng and Xinqun Feng
Land 2024, 13(10), 1680; https://doi.org/10.3390/land13101680 - 15 Oct 2024
Viewed by 1165
Abstract
In the development of rural revitalization, the art intervention in rural cultural tourism has become a hot topic recently. With the advent of the new media era, it is particularly important to study the factors that affect the artistic value of environmental graphic [...] Read more.
In the development of rural revitalization, the art intervention in rural cultural tourism has become a hot topic recently. With the advent of the new media era, it is particularly important to study the factors that affect the artistic value of environmental graphic design. This study proposes six dimensions of environmental graphic design for rural cultural tourism through literature analysis and experience summary, which are refined into 21 impact indicators. It is based on the case of the environmental graphic publicity of cultural tourism in Chongqing Nanshan Cattle Village, using the SBE beauty evaluation method to evaluate the influencing factors, while using the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) to measure each indicator. The consistency of the two evaluation methods verifies the feasibility of the influencing factors, and this study found the influence of visuality, cultural nature, artistic nature, interactivity, spatiality, and communicativeness on aesthetic value. Moreover, the core of environmental graphic design lies in information transmission, in which artistic nature occupies an important position, while cultural nature, although it has a relatively small weight in aesthetic value, cannot be ignored in social media communication. In terms of visual design, a reasonable layout of equipment significantly enhances visual appeal, while spatial adaptability is considered a key factor. This paper emphasizes the integration of art principles into design to promote sustainable development, while also pointing out that the identification of rural cultural symbols can enhance visitors’ cultural experience. In terms of interactivity, it is crucial to encourage visitors to actively participate and share their experiences, while communication emphasizes the important impact of exposure to rural scenes on brand communication. This research provides systematic theoretical support and practical guidance for the environmental graphic design of rural cultural tourism. Full article
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